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p–n junctions represent the simplest case of a semiconductor electronic device; a p-n junction by itself, when connected on both sides to a circuit, is a diode. More complex circuit components can be created by further combinations of p-type and n-type semiconductors; for example, the bipolar junction transistor (BJT) is a semiconductor in ...
A p–n diode is a type of semiconductor diode based upon the p–n junction. The diode conducts current in only one direction, and it is made by joining a p-type semiconducting layer to an n-type semiconducting layer. Semiconductor diodes have multiple uses including rectification of alternating current to direct current, in the detection of ...
These characteristics are also known as I–V curves, referring to the standard symbols for current and voltage. In electronic components with more than two terminals, such as vacuum tubes and transistors, the current–voltage relationship at one pair of terminals may depend on the current or voltage on a third terminal. This is usually ...
Shockley derives an equation for the voltage across a p-n junction in a long article published in 1949. [2] Later he gives a corresponding equation for current as a function of voltage under additional assumptions, which is the equation we call the Shockley ideal diode equation. [3]
The Shockley diode equation relates the diode current of a p-n junction diode to the diode voltage .This relationship is the diode I-V characteristic: = (), where is the saturation current or scale current of the diode (the magnitude of the current that flows for negative in excess of a few , typically 10 −12 A).
A semiconductor diode is a device typically made from a single p–n junction.At the junction of a p-type and an n-type semiconductor, there forms a depletion region where current conduction is inhibited by the lack of mobile charge carriers.
The rectifying metal–semiconductor junction forms a Schottky barrier, making a device known as a Schottky diode, while the non-rectifying junction is called an ohmic contact. [1] (In contrast, a rectifying semiconductor–semiconductor junction, the most common semiconductor device today, is known as a p–n junction.)
The Zener diode's operation depends on the heavy doping of its p–n junction. The depletion region formed in the diode is very thin (< 1 μm) and the electric field is consequently very high (about 500 kV/m) even for a small reverse bias voltage of about 5 V, allowing electrons to tunnel from the valence band of the p-type material to the ...